Convective inertial accelerometer with metamaterial thermal structure
OwnerWilliam N. Carrinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An accelerometer based on convective thermal transport through a fluid is structured without a solid proof mass. Thermal transport through the fluid is sourced and sensed by thermal elements. The thermal elements are comprised of phononic structures which increase power efficiency for accelerometer operation and provide an increased sensitivity to acceleration vectors. The temperature of the sensing element is a function of the vectored acceleration of the enclosed cavity structure. The accelerometer in embodiments provides an extended range for multi-axis accelerations from excitations such as vibration, shock and gravity. Integration of the accelerometer with CMOS signal conditioning circuitry on the same die is convenient.
Claims20
A convective accelerometer comprised of one or more heater thermal elements and one or more sensor thermal elements disposed within a cavity, the cavity filled with a fluid providing a convective thermal transport from the heater thermal elements to sensor thermal elements, wherein:
- each thermal element is comprised of one or more micro-platforms wherein each micro-platform is supported by a plurality of nanowires;
- each nanowire is partially disposed on the one or more micro-platforms and an off-platform region, the off-platform region at least partially surrounding the micro-platform;
- one or more of the plurality of nanowires is physically configured with one or more first layers, the one or more nanowire first layers comprised of phononic scattering nanostructures and/or phononic resonant nanostructures;
- the one or more first layers of the plurality nanowires provides a reduction in the ratio of thermal conductivity to electrical conductivity, and
- the thermal elements provide a means for creating and sensing a vectored change in thermal transport by free convection through the fluid within the cavity.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.